Super Bowl Sunday is here!

  Sunday is the Super Bowl.  To be honest with you, I don’t even know who is playing.  I used to be a Dallas fan but before that I was a "Broadway Joe" fan. I started to call someone and ask but I decided to just tell you I really didn’t know this year.  Honesty….what a relief it is.

  I was going back over some of the blogs I have written recently and found one about football.  For a moment or two I thought I would post that up on the site again to commemorate Sunday and then I thought, no, just write a new one.  YOU deserve a fresh word not a stale one.  So here we go.

  In the whole big scheme of life, I have come to realize that our best offense in the days in which we live is a good defense.  Being prepared physically, mentally and spiritually for what is going to hit us or come up against us in the game of life will be a key factor in the success of our everyday lives. 

  I wrote a little poem years ago entitled Stop to smell the Roses.  It was just, as I look back, a silly little poem but it meant the world to me at the time because I never used to take the time to write anything but a check!  I felt that it was possible that maybe my life was destined for something more than I had known.  These poems would just seem to effortlessly blop out on a page over and over again.  I wondered what they were for.  They came as a result of my spending time with God.  Over and over they would come forth.  I tried many times to get them published as anything…but to no avail.

  Then quite by chance one evening, I just sat down and went through them.  One by one I read as if being led to do that.  When I got to the last one, it finally hit me that it was one of the ways in which the Holy Spirit had tried to speak to me.  It was as if those years meant something more than just trying to walk in faith.  It was as if they were supposed to be a defense for me against what was coming, but I just didn’t get it.  So many times I just haven’t gotten “it”.

  So, the point I am trying to make is that God is always there speaking to us for our own good as a defense against what is coming, but how many of us are listening?  Most of the time I have been given the ball and fumbled and had to start all over again.  I am determined this time that will not be the case.  I forge through whatever is before me. It is not always easy.

  On the whole, we don't know how tough we really are until we are faced with a situation that seems impossible to conquer.  But, if we have been trying to walk with Christ and trying to do His will, He is faithful to give us a good defense...we just don't know how to discern it.  When the game of life is over down here I want to be the victor with the highest score possible.  I will not be defeated by not having a good defense set in place. 

  I can tell you that the best offense you will ever have is a great defense.  I am the quarterback and I am passing the ball to you.  Are you looking for me to pass the ball to you or are you not paying attention?  Jesuswithoutthejunk is trying to equip you so you can go for the touchdown. You are going to have to be the one to catch this ball and make a run for the goal line I can't do that for you.        

Remember:  Not to try is to fail…. 

Enjoy the game!!!!

Molly  

Flu Shot

I had a flu shot this week.  For the past couple of years, I have gotten a flu shot as a preventive measure against the flu.  The Holy Spirit directs me to do this.  Now in my mind, I think of a flu shot in this way:  I am given a little of the flu strain so my body can build up immunities to the flu bug that goes around.  In this way, I will be able to fight off a good case of the flu (Molly’s explanation).

It is the same way in life with immunizing yourself against the big bad wolf called the devil.  If you do not take preventive measures to ward off what is coming, and it will come, it will be just like the case of the Three Little Pigs.  The first one built his house with straw.  Hello!  Look what happened.  It certainly didn’t take much huffing and puffing to blow that house down.  The second one built his house with sticks.  It took a little more huffing and puffing but in case you can’t remember, it was blown down too.  But, the third one built his house out of bricks.  The big bad wolf couldn’t blow it down.  This house was built on a solid foundation. 

There is a devil, although we don’t talk about him much.  That is because not many know much about how to fight him.  In the days in which we live, you will have to learn about fighting him so he cannot blow your house down.  Religion, by itself, is not going to cut the mustard for you.  And by the way, YOU are the temple that the Holy Spirit dwells in.  You have a choice.  You can live in fear of him (Satan) constantly scaring you to death, to the point of death, or you can take a good shot of preventive medicine and find out how to use the weapons you have been given to fight him with.  It is going to cost you some time and effort but at the end of the day, you will be left standing and he will be left defeated.

I took the flu shot and got a little of the flu.  It really hit me hard for a couple of days but that was so I would be prepared not to get a full-blown case of it later.  I did what I knew I had to do to protect myself.  Naming and claiming everything from health to wealth is not always God and it is not always from Heaven.  We have to know when to call for supernatural help and assistance from God and when to stand on our own two feet with our big heads attached, so we can be the victor.  I knew that if I didn’t get a flu shot like I was being told to, it would have been to my detriment.  My house would have been blown down and it wouldn’t have taken much…Are you really prepared?  I am not talking about a 401K plan, stocks or bonds or a big fat savings account.  I am talking about knowing what your inheritance is as a child of God.  You have one if you will but stop and find out what it is.  

At some point in your life, the big bad wolf is going to try to huff and puff and blow your house down.  Are you ready to stand against it?

Instead of RIP (Rest in peace) the order of the day is KIP(Knowledge is power).   

Molly 

Mount Everest

Mount Everest is generally considered the tallest mountain in the world.  People from all over the world go to this mountain and climb it. There seems to be a purpose to "conquering" this mountain and fulfills a particular need in their lives…but what is it?  I liken my Crosswalk with the Lord to climbing Mount Everest.

I look back on my walk and if I had known the heights the Lord wanted to take me to while I was here on earth, I am not certain that I would have bought into the Jesus journey.  It was not at all, and still isn’t, what I expected.  I wanted to go in and grab what I needed to "ease the pain" in my life and then go back to the way I knew how to live.  God loved me too much to allow me to do that.  He already knew the mountain I faced.  I stood at the bottom and up was the only way out of the mess I had created for myself.  I didn’t realize how tall the mountain was and it was for my sake that He kept that little detail from me.  Many times I could only see what was right in front of me.

God knew what I was going to need to climb the mountain before me and He was faithful to equip me with it all…and I mean all.  The weapons that He equipped me with were spiritual and tangible.  But, I was going to have to be the one to climb my mountain.  He couldn’t and was not going to do it for me.  There were times when I couldn’t get a sure footing…there were times when my foot slipped and I thought I was going to have to go back to the beginning and start all over again.  There were times when I felt like Satan was going to con me into jumping off even though I knew to stay steady as I was climbing…. little by little and inch by inch...Through it all God was faithful.

I have looked up to Heaven and told God that people would never believe what He has brought me through and what He is bringing me to.  I have experienced more here tangibly in the form of true miracles than I deserve.  I have seen more in the spiritual realm than people would believe and through it all, He kept me.  Many of the things He has done for me have been unseen by human eyes but nevertheless, they are tangible and only Heaven will know the true depth of what has been revealed to me.  

No matter where you are in life, if you are trying to climb your "mountain" stay the course.  It won’t be easy but it will be worth it.  I get very tired of people who don’t say walking with Jesus on earth is not easy.  We, on the whole, have been mislead.  This is not a game.  The stakes are high but the price you will pay is worth it.  Truth…we need truth so we can all partake in what God has for each one of us…The hour is late and it is time to rise up, get dressed, get your gear and get going on your climb.  Put those hooks into the rock (the solid rock, I might add) and get going.  Sometimes the mountain before you can seem too much but I promise you that the only way to get through it, is to walk through it.  Don’t quit and you will make it.  Satan wants you to be a quitter.  He got me to quit more times in my life than you can imagine.  Now I know that when I want to quit I won’t, no matter how much I want to at times….

Don’t try and let anyone stop you.  God says to “come out from among them and be ye separate unto Him.”  It might get lonely and you will get tired….but don’t quit.  The climb might get hard and you might want to give up and quit but if you do, you won’t get the prize that awaits you at the top.  There is a rest that you can enter into on this earth that is attained by obedience, diligence, and proving to the Lord you’re trustworthy.  There is no greater feeling than to know whose arms you are going to fall into when you have done the will of the Father.  He is waiting for you and will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant."

What is it that needs to be fulfilled in you?  What is your divine destiny and purpose?  Do you know that you have one?  Don’t let a few rocks stop you from God’s best…if you start to fall, yell to the only one who can help you…..JESUS.  What is the mountain before you?  I promise you one thing if you will allow Christ to guide you through the rough terrain you will come out the victor.  The bell will ding and you will have won.   

Molly    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                Reflections

It is almost 1:00 in the morning.  I am awakened.  Thoughts of the year are running through my mind.  As I am thinking on the past year as it comes to a close, I thank God it is almost over.  I reflect on my life and wonder if I would have opted out of the walk I am on now if I had known what lay ahead of me.  The New Year is upon us and thoughts trail back to my past celebrations…

I recall the days of getting all dressed up on New Year’s Eve.  I would have something special or new to wear.  I would have my hair done.  I would be going out on the town to a fancy meal, dancing, getting drunk and singing Auld Lang Syne, never knowing why I was singing it.  One year I watched When Harry Met Sally and they explained the words in the song at the New Year’s Eve party.  I still wondered why in the world people picked that song to reflect back on the past year and all that it had encompassed.  It reminded me of how I thought my traditional life in the church had been.  Why had I almost worked myself to literal death?  What was it for? Did I really know?  Did I really understand fully why I was doing what I was doing?  At the time you would have thought that I alone was the only one capable of bringing God into any given situation at this particular church body.  I literally tried to work myself to death in order to please God and the people I was around.  (I think it was the people first, and God came in second.)

I reflect over the past eight to ten years and see how God used traditions to teach, train and develop me in my character and helping me get my flesh under control.  He used traditions to heal me of past hurts and pains of the abortions I have had by having me reach out and help the children in Sunday school in most ways imaginable.  He used traditional church to show me the lack of heavenly things in a local body so He, in turn, could use me to train, teach and help people “just like me” on how to enter the “rest” of the Lord that the Bible teaches we can have.  I have learned that it only comes through diligence, obedience and having a teachable spirit within.  It doesn’t come by just sitting in a church pew week after week being lulled to sleep by the traditions of man.

I have witnessed firsthand how some people will continually seek the truth and never come to knowledge of the living Christ, by trying to work their way to Heaven and God’s graces…when it is free all along.  I see people who have never changed. Whether it is by destiny, hardheadedness or being just plain lazy, they never seem to embark on the fullness that the Cross of Christ provides. 

As I reflect, I have come to the conclusion that God is so much bigger and more mysterious than I ever, ever knew.  So many times I have put and kept Him in a box that He was screaming to get out of.  I am convinced more than I ever have been that I will never know fully the scope of what He has for us as His children, yet somehow, I still want to strive to become more like Him, knowing I really never will.

Then quite by chance I took my mother to a benefit concert this past month.  The concert was being held to aid a mission outreach I had originally begun at this particular church.  I started this outreach as I was being taught, purged and tweaked for the Master’s use.  When something is “a God thing” it will have staying power.  That is why this mission outreach continues year after year.  It was good to see that my labors had not been in vain….of course God knew that all along…

I reflected on the fact that I am not in control and thank God that God is.  I have learned to finally let others find their own way.  I can’t do it for them.  It is my job to do what I am called to do by putting the truth before them and then the rest is up to them.  There is an old saying of “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.”  That saying holds true today for the Gospel. 

It has been a very hard year.  The warfare has been second to none.  Had I known what lay ahead of me last year, I might have opted out and preferred that someone else carry the burden of just plain telling the truth and calling a “spade a spade.”  But once again, I reflect and see that God made me the way He did because He knew I would never quit and I wouldn’t give up…..no matter what…no matter what.  No one will ever know the depths of warfare I have endured just so God’s children could get the truth.  Believe me, this is straight from the horse’s mouth. 

So as the New Year begins, I urge you to sit and reflect on this past year.  Look at where you have come from, look at where you are, and take a good hard look at where you want to go.  I assure you that nothing is impossible if you believe, nothing will be impossible for you, and you shall receive whatever is the Father’s will…..but you have to make sure it is the Father’s will.

God is merciful, kind, loving and ready to give you what you want, but He requires you give Him yourself first… there are no exceptions.  So as we journey down another year, remember that you are not in control, no matter how much you think you are.  There are some, to be certain, who don’t want to be in control.  There are others who will strive against themselves and never come to a knowledge of their Father in Heaven…I find that so sad…so very sad.  It is His love alone that has healed me from years of torment.  It is that love alone that needs now, more than ever, to be conveyed to hurting people. 

God has called me to rise and declare the tangible works of the Father as I embark upon another year.

God bless you and may you have a good new year,

Molly